Basic HTML Version
18
number of scarce medicines has decreased, the country’s pharmaceutical
industry and medicine market are not free from problems yet. On the
other hand, destruction of production infrastructure and damages done
to major medicine distribution companies have led to growth of upstart
companies, which need time to gain necessary experience. On the other
hand, the black market for supply of medicine is still working with
full force and the government is facing problems in its fight against
this market. This market has caused many problems for patients and
Sanctions on education, medicines and livelihood of Iranians
I was granted Ph.D. scholarships from three European universities
in 2013: the University of Bonn, the University of Edinburgh,
and the University of Oxford in England. A private Iranian
pharmaceutical company granted me a scholarship to continue
my studies at the University of Oxford. I had no problem during
the first year ofmy studies. However, after the second year began,
the company could not fund me anymore because sanctions had
caused all economic activities of that company to grind to total
halt and it was facing a major crisis. The company then stopped
its economic activities altogether and since I could not pay the
tuition fee for the last year of my studies, I was suspended by
the university. The interesting point is that sanctions were not
supposed to affect either Iranian students or supply of medicines
or people’s livelihood. However, at the end of the day, one of the
countries, whichwere protagonists in imposing sanctions on Iran,
namely the UK, suspended my studies at one of its universities
despite the fact that I had paid two-thirds of the tuition fee.